>> greg: can we talk about the follow lil of the segway? the fact they created this thing and it was supposed to change the world and they realize there is no place to drive them. they didn't have anyplace to go. so now you have this. >> dana: it's like solyndra. >> greg: it is. >> dana: i got to mention it one more time. that is it. bob, we got to go. but we're going to be back tomorrow. thank you for watching. >> neil: the presidential race could come down to one simple question. the democrats here in charlotte have the answer. live from theteamic national convention. this is special edition of "special report." ♪ ♪ >> neil: good evening. i'm bret baier. we're in north carolina where the democratic convention gets underway tomorrow. on this holiday to celebrate america's workers president obama finds himself in a

struck to convince laborers that he deserves a second term. it seems some in his own party need convincing on one important question. chief white house correspondent ed henry is travelling with the president in new orleans. [ applause ] >> reporter: president obama top allies are damned if they say yes and damned if they say no to this fundamental question hanging over the democratic national conventio convention. >> can you honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago? >> no, but that is not the question of this election. the question without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before george bush brought us the bush job losses, the bush recession, the bush deficit. >> reporter: after republican mitt romney campaign pounced on that, today, governor martin o'malley did a 180. >> we are clearly better off as country because we're now creating jobs rather than losing them. we have not recovered all that we lost. >> reporter: the problem compounded by the fact two top advisors to the president would not say yes or no.

>> it took us a long time to get in the hole and will take us a long time to get out of it. >> there are plenty of people in our economy who have been impacted by the positive way by decisions the president made >> reporter: seeking to further clean it up, a top campaign official added by any measurement the country is better off, which drew cackles from the romney camp. other officials try to change the question altogether. >> the question that americans are asking is how do we restore economic security for the middle class. governor romney ultimately failed to answer that question last week. bolstered by fact that the unemployment is lower than the national average and the president previewed his convention speech with attack on romney. >> it was a rerun. you might as well watched it in black and white tv with rabbit ears on there. >> reporter: he fired back on romney's claim it was time for a new coach, saying the

nation has already seen the republican play book. >> there is a flag on the play. i've got one piece of advice for you about romney ryan game plan, ohio. punt it away. >> reporter: the president landed in new orleans to tour storm damage and get briefed on the situation, three days after republican mitt romney was here. white house spokesman jay carney says the visit is not political and charged that paul ryan wants to cut disaster funding. romney camp denies that and told me in a statement they believe the white house team will politicize anything. bret? >> neil: ed henry traveling with the president tonight in new orleans. the top of the republican ticket is taking this labor day off, but vice presidential candidate paul ryan had one event earlier. not too far from here. chief political correspondent carl cameron continues tonight's reporting on the big question of this campaign. >> in greenville, north carolina, more than 200-miles from the democratic national convention in charlotte, paul ryan led the g.o.p. attempt to

counter program against the democrats. >> there is a little gathering going on in charlotte. you heard about this? the president will say a lot of things and he will but he can't tell you that you are better off. >> reporter: they had an attack video with the president recycling the pledges he made four years ago. >> americans are out of work. we have friends out there, family looking for work. >> reporter: in michigan, vice president used labor day to rip in republicans as disinterested in working class. >> they blame you as the problem. >> reporter: the claim that americans are better off four years ago has republicans crowing how out of touch the democrats are. the latest "associated press" poll indicates by more than two to one people say the financial situation has not improved or is worse than four years ago. 36% say worse. 36% say same. 28% say better. >> every president since the great depression who asked americans to send them in to a second term could say that you

were better off today than four years ago, except for jimmy carter and for president barack obama. >> rerporter: a new "charlotte observer" poll shows tie where it's higher than the national average. 15 electoral college votes are at stake. independents, the president trails by six points. >> you will hear alibis and scapegoat to cover up the presidency. >> he and his wife ann rented a jet ski. romney has three debates with the president in october and plans to accelerate rehearsal and preparation tuesday through thursday at the redding, vermont, home of the lieutenant governor of massachusetts when romney was governor of the bay state. romney aides are already downplaying his debate performance expectations.

in large measure by hyping president obama's prowess, noting that he did a fine job in their view against john mccain in particular, they say, proved himself stellar against hillary clinton. bret? >> neil: carl cameron down the road in greenville, north carolina. carl, thank you. we will talk about the magic number. 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. we get information from karl rove and joe trippi. red states are obama. blue is romney. pinkish is lean romney. light blue is lean obama. yellow states are tossup states in the margin of error. this all based on polls within the last 30 days. okay, gentlemen. karl, what has changed? >> minor change to barack obama advantage.

connecticut with seven electoral vote goes fm lean obama to solid obama but the good news ends there. two states, nevada with six and michigan with 16 shift from lean obama to tossup. we now have nine states with 122 electoral votes now tossup. this is the largest number of tossup states that we have had since we began tracking in april. largest number of electoral college votes as well. >> bret: of the change what is is most important, joe? >> those two mean suddenly there is a lot of different ways for mitt romney to make it. we have been talking for weeks about the 3-2-19 strategy. now you can lose a state like virginia, one of the three, indiana, north carolina and virginia that he has to win or we thought he had to win to have a shot. you can lose one of those states, because now so many states are in tossup, nevada, michigan, wisconsin, those three states if you win them you can start to lose some of the 3-2-1 states which is something the obama campaign could not have possibly been

thinking about this late in the game. >> bret: karl, as we point out, this is over 30 days. you moved texas in to the dark red, because you just said it is. but georgia is the same way, right? tennessee, kentucky? >> we have 35 electoral college votes called lean romney, georgia, tennessee, kentucky. they are called that because the last poll we have is some time ago. but i personally think those 35 electoral college votes are in romney's column. if you do that, think about that for a minute. solid obama states 14 of them represent 184 electoral college votes. if you add kentucky, tennessee, georgia, to the 1 states that romney has. you add those states with bah and 184 to 181 in solid states for each candidate. the rest of is it up for gra grabs. >> bret: joe, talk about a convention bounce. we have don't see one of yet. tough. holiday weekend. you have the democratic convention this week.

>> the non-incumbency point gets five points. it expect fa for romney. but we won't be able to see it not completely because as you said, we are at the democratic convention. that is going to start, the pendulum swinging the other way. you know, i think later on we have to see how big the gap is. but i think the bounce itself might be masked how close the conventions are together >> in the modern rare is only the second time conventions were back to back. we're likely to see the effect of the bounce mitigated by. that we ought to look at gallup polls and others cup weeks before the republican convention and see how the respective party bounces settle out. >> bret: in north carolina, it's tied on this map. recent polls are really tight here. shouldn't romney lead in north carolina this >> romney, if you look at the

recent poll, a new poll out today from the elan university and "charlotte observer" where he is up by four. this is the strength and weaknesses of averaging the polls together. we'll drop off this week, the earliest poll in the last month, which is incidentally the best poll for president obama. this state is going to end the next couple of weeks trend -- i wouldn't surprised to see in a couple of weeks north carolina be a lean romney state on the basis of dropping out the older polls. >> bret: we talk about the ipad app that people can download. they are downloading it, making their own maps, comparing the maps that you and karl had done. you have one that you picked out from a guy who put together his choices. >> yeah. ryan collins, put this up. used the app and put it up. what i found interesting the reason i want to share it is it shows why it's so important that nevada and michigan went in tossup this week. he has, barack obama winning virginia, which is something i think is likely to happen.

or could happen. with the 3-2-1 strategy, virginia being a must-win, how do you win without it? and now that nevada, he has nevada going for romney. and wisconsin. you had wisconsin and nevada together. it makes up for virginia and romney gets to 275. that scares me. so, but keep these coming in. i think there has been very interesting ones. >> bret: you have different equations to get you there. >> yes. for example the "new york times" had a story if romney were to lose ohio, if you look at the battleground states there are 11 other ways by which he can replace those 18 electoral college votes. here in this map from ryan we have virginia with 13 electoral college votes going to obama. he replaces it by combination of nevada and wisconsin. you can also get it by wisconsin and new hampshire. for example, or by michigan in and of itself. without the others. >> bret: does the president have the same option stringing the states together? >> you know, the guy who is on

offense always has a better shot to string together a different set of states. guy on the defense is playing defense. >> obama could still -- the one thing that is consistent. if he could stop romney in ohio and virginia, very tough -- it's still possible for romney to get there, but very difficult to do. >> bret: on this map, missouri is lean romney. karl, i have to ask you about this comment that was from a private get together of fundraiser, i guess, a meeting. in which you said about the senate candidate there. we should sink todd akin if he is found mysteriously murdered don't look for my whereabouts. >> not exactly the close but close enough. >> bret: the one they put out. >> this is a comment made in, a remark made if private conversation. when it became public, started dialing up the numbers i had for todd akin, congressman akin, called him. apologized for the intemprent remark. he could haven't been more gracious and kind accepting my apology. i wish i hadn't said it in

private. when it became public the right thing to do is call him. i did. >> bret: you regret it? >> yeah, look. again, exasperateed comment in private. i wish i hadn't said it. when it's public, the best thing to do is call and apologize. it never did. >> i never made an intemprent remarks. ever. >> bret: leave it there. as always, thank you. see you next week. coming up, what is bracketing and why is it so important around these conventions? keep it here. follow the wings. uh, i'm in a timeout because apparently

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>> bret: labor day edition of "special report." john roberts now on how republicans will work to get their own points across in the

democratic convention. >> are you better off than you were four years ago? >> it was a defining phrase in the 1980 election. 32 years later, republicans are using it as a skunk at a garden party. >> a message we're trying to make sure every american understands is that you are not better off than you were four years ago. >> it's called bracketing. surround your opponent's message with your own. rnc assembled a war room in charlotte relentlessly driving talking point and rapid response on twitter and facebook, blasting the internet with ads that say in four years nothing has changed. >> the days of laying low during your opponent's convention are long gone. >> you need to be on the scene providing immediate feedback in real-time as it's happening. or the story has gone by you 30 minutes later. >> reporter: in tampa, the democrats had big plans to bracket the republican convention. vice president biden was to tour the state while the dnc held local rallies. most of that was lost to the tropical storm. democrats still got a few

licks in against up and coming republican stars. >> you can't just trot out a brown face or a spanish surname and expect that people will vote for your party. >> in charlotte, many of tampa's biggest draws are back. governor nikki haley, mcdonald. marco rubio may come later. rnc respected space in nascar building with the requisite nascar window dressing. the effort wins appreciation from some democrats. >> i think both parties have good, rapid response teams. i still say the obama team is better because they have been doing it longer. but i say the republicans are getting strong there. they're instant, they're quick. >> with undecided voters beginning to pay attention, neither party can miss an opportunity. remembering all too well what happened in 2004 with the kerry campaign went wind surfing while george bush was on the attack.

>> they sat back and waited. that didn't work out. we make sure we take advantage of every minute we can be in charlotte. >> republicans may have two other opportunities to drive home very powerful messages that they can use as brackets during the convention. as early as tomorrow, the national debt is expect to top $16 trillion. then there is that all-important jobs report for the month of august that comes out just as the convention ends on friday morning. bret? >> bret: john roberts on the floor. thank you. we're getting mixed signals from the white house about american troops in afghanistan. sunday, press secretary jay carney said the president "never said that all the troops would be out of afghanistan by 2014." but that isn't what the president said earlier in colorado. >> we are bringing our troops home from afghanistan. and i set a timetable. we will have them all out of there by 2014. >> bret: carney accused reporters of playing gotcha

war games saying people understand the president's afghan policy. democrats and some conservative pundits criticized governor romney for failing to mention afghanistan in his acceptance speech. suicide bomber and n pakistan rammed his car in a u.s. government vehicle today. two pakistanis were killed and 19 people were injured including two americans. the target vehicle was leaving the u.s. consulate. authorities in india have arrested more than a dozen people accused of plotting to target the country's nuclear power plant. the suspect are believed to be from the same group that launched terror attacks in mumbai in 2008 that left 164 people dead. activists in syria say government warplanes bombed town never the turkish border today. killing at least 18 people. violence was also reported in and around damascus. meanwhile, the new-up envoy to syria says ending the civil war there will be a very difficult task. still ahead -- does it matter what is in the democratic party platform?

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>> bret: see the convention hall here in the big screen, putting up pictures around the country. talk about what we can expect in charlotte and get context and perspective. we welcome senior political analyst brit hume and "fox news sunday" host chris wallace. good evening, gentlemen. brit, what about what the democrats, what the president has to do this week in charlotte. >> he has to get full-throated endorsement from bill clinton, which is he expecting. that will be one of the most watched and anticipated

element of the convention to hear the man who headed the wing of the democratic party, which has become defunked under barack obama. the democratic leadership council. the centrist part of the democratic party is gone. bill clinton led that. you know in his heart and in his mind he has major disagreements with the way this president has responded to what happened in 1994. i'm confident he will suppress that and did his best to deliver ringing endorsement to make convincing case against mitt romney. i'm eager to hear him because you can never be sure. it will be fascinating to watch. >> bret: chris? >> two things. first they have had trouble with this, as we saw on the sunday show, they have to answer the question that mitt romney raised. are you better off than you are four years ago? they are struggling with that. hard question to answer. a lot of those statistics on unemployment and debt, growth,

variety of other things aren't good. the second thing i think is not the comparison to mitt romney, the comparison to obama in 2008. that was a magic convention, today i reread obama speech in 2008. when he accepted it in the big football stadium and greek columns. it was hope and change and new fresh face on the political scene. he is not that anymore. it will be harder. two talked about the conventions you have covered. and you covered 35. bring us back to interesting moments. >> sometimes things happen in convention that a speech will be given and moment will occur. at the time, in the period thereafter. the speech will be remembered in a certain way.

bush got behind in the polling and the democrats convention and there was a much longer delay between the conventions than now. he made a speech that came to be known as the read my lips speech. in the time at that hall before the delegates, some may have had doubts about him, before the country, it's the i am that man speech. he delivered that man about himself, readiness for the presidency. i am that man with emphasis in force. i remember michael barrone who has seen a few conventions turned to me and said have you ever heard him that good or that strong? i said covering him for some time i never had. now, that line has been lost to history. in favor of read my lips at the time an applause line, punch line. it wasn't the key line of the speech. now it is. >> bret: chris? >> i was thinking about this today as you gave us a work assignment. 1964, the democratic national con vention held in atlantic city. lyndon johnson, less than a

year after the assassination of john f. kennedy. robert kennedy was going to speak. johnson was very concerned that the delegates who obviously were tremendous supporters of john kennedy were going to stampede. they were going put him on the ticket maybe replace johnson. certainly replace hubert humpry as runningmate. scheduled convention so nomination took place before. kennedy came on the last night and before he got to speak there was a 22-minute crying, standing ovation. then he gave a beautiful speech. quoting shakespeare about his dead brother and reported later after the tremendous outpouring and the great emotion of his he went out to the fire escape of the convention hall and wept. >> bret: often these things are very scripted. clint eastwood was unscript and got a lot of attention. do you expect anything unscripted here in charlotte that may surprise us? >> doubt it. but you hope so.

clinton is one of the things you always wonder about. my guess is i reread his speech today. he gave a very straight -- he had a lot more reasons to dislike barack obama in 2008 than he does now. >> i don't think we will see much unscripted. it just doesn't happen much anymore. >> bret: you never know. >> you can hope. >> bret: as always, thank you very much. next up in the grapevine, sequel to eastwooding. we'll explain that. some skeptical runners say not so fast to paul ryan. all energy development comes with some risk,

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>> bret: and now fresh pickings from the political grapevine. vice presidential nominee paul ryan has walked back a comment about his prowess at marathon running. last week ryan told a radio host he had run a marathon in "under three hours. high 2:00s. it had 2:50 something." ryan is known to be workout warrior but it raised eyebrows at runners world magazine. they did digging found he ran a single marathon in 1990 finishing in four hours, one minute and 25 seconds. ryan issued a statement saying even family members teased him about the claim. the race was more than 20 years ago. but my brother tobin who ran boston last year reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three. in two days, president clinton will ask america to re-elect

president obama. but the past hasn't always been so congenial. in an effort to secure an endorsement from hillary clinton from ted kennedy, president clinton allegedly said of then senator obama, "a few years ago this guy would have been carrying our bags." the "new yorker" ryan lizza. said he got the bag carrying story from tim russert in 2008. so far no comment from president clinton or obama or their camps. photo i.d. is required to get in the dnc. prompting an avalanche of irony-laced tweets today. one user tweets utter hypocrisy. dems require photo i.d. to get in dnc convention. user require i.d. to vote at hall or union contract but voter i.d. is bad. another if i need an i.d. to buy cold medicine, use a check or even get in the dnc convention why shouldn't i need an idea to vote? finally clint eastwood republican convention dialogue with an empty chair inspired

eastwooding. people posing with an empty chair for pictures, as we told you about friday. now a new effort. national empty chair day. today, users of facebook, twitter and conservative blog like lyle insurrection.com -- legal insurrection.com posted empty chair pictures all over the country. part of the business of this week's democratic convention will be the approval of the party platform. tonight, chief washington correspondent james rosen tells us what is in it and what the president is running on and whether it all matters. >> americans may be still evolving when it comes to marriage equality. >> indeed, when president obama accepts his party nomination he will do so in a state in north carolina, where voters this year approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. mr. obama believes each state should be allowed to decide the matter of same-sex marriage for itself. >> this concludes the convention platform committee. you are hereby adjourned. >> reporter: but the 2012 democratic platform will call

for repeal of the law that permits state to reject the validity of same-sex marriage license issued in other states. >> if you want to know where the candidates are headed, worth taking a look at the documents to see the road map. >> i think whether or not you agree or disagree, with same-sex marriage, the position that governor romney has taken is extreme one that most people disagree with, which is enshrining discrimination within the constitution. >> the dnc platform is also expected to call for an increase in the minimum wage, for tax relief for clean energy manufacturers and increased fuel efficiency rates by 2025. >> we need to pass the dream act. >> on immigration policy at the dnc platform will issue a call for comprehensive reform that implies support for but does not explicitly endorse the dream act. strong pro-choice plank will appear every four years despite the recent polls showing fully half of americans call themselves pro-life. compared to 4 in 10 calling themselves pro-choice.

fox news contributor susan susan estrich -- susan estrich managed the platform debate in 1980. >> the platform mattered less of a predictor of what the nominee or candidate will do in office and more as a political document. i think the democratic platform this time around isn't going to matter at all. he's mr. obama record for better or for worse. >> one plank from the democratic platform of 2008 unlikely to be repeated this year, the vow to close the detention facility at guantanamo bay. bret? >> bret: james, thank you. if you are on the road this holiday, you are paying more than during any other labor day weekend ever at the pump. the national average is $3.83 a gallon. that is up 17 cents a gallon from labor day 20 2011. a top official at ice has resigned. after being accused of cultivating a frat house style work environment. former chief of staff suzanne barr denies the allegations

but says she does not want to distract from the agency's mission. republican lawmakers say they have questions about the culture at ice an homeland security. we will continue to investigate. it will be a theme right up until election day. are you better off than you were four years ago in we'll ask the fox all-stars when we come back. [ lisa ] my name's lisa, and chantix helped me quit. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking.

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al i can say we are in a better position than four years ago in the economy. when this president took office we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. >> we have made a lot of progress in depths of a recession. >> yes, we are better off. we have a ways to go. president obama will lay out how we can continue to move the economy forward. >> can you honestly say people are better off today than four years ago? >> no, but that is not the question of this election. the question without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before george bush brought us the bush job losses. the bush recession. we are clearly better off as a country because we're creating jobs rather than losing them. >> bret: governor o'malley from maryland last sound bite this morning. the other 24 hours before. democrats answering the question: are you better off than you were four years ago? if you look at the latest polls we have two tracking poll. rasmussen has a daily tracking poll out today of likely voters.

this has romney up 48% to 44%. both of those within the margin of error. bring in the panel. tucker callson from dailycaller.com. kirsten powers for daily beast. fred barnes executive editor of "weekly standard." jeff salmon, for "new york times." jeff, as the democrats officials from all over were going on sunday shows you would think that that would be one of the questions they would prep for to begin with. >> this is not an original question. but the reason they're afraid to answer it because they don't want to give the sense they think things are okay. if they answer in affirmative yes, they, are it would have given the romney campaign opening here. but despite how people answer

it and things like this is going to be the sound track and the guide for the next 60 days of this election. voters will be asking that question. so i think that despite what governor o'malley said both times, and i think we are going to see that replayed again in his own political future, that is a core problem for this obama campaign going forward. not just how they semantically answer it but how people feel about the question. it's a challenge for them. >> bret: do you agree? >> i'll say it's a challenge for them. this is why they're trying to raise every other issue over the last year, the war on women. taxing the rich. the dog on romney car. practically anything they'd rather talk about than this. because the answer is we're not as well off. i mean that is obvious. almost any numbers. the obama people are like 4.5 million jobs created. but that didn't even keep the job growth didn't keep up with the population growth. so that is certainly isn't any good. 5% trop in household income and so on.

all the numbers that don't look good for obama. then there was i just look over the fox news poll of couple weeks ago to found a question, that somehow i hadn't noticed. do you believe the economy is rising or declining? 2 to 1 say it's declining. 3 to 1 from independent voters. the voters think we're not better off. >> bret: talking points did go out this morning and the answer became the president was handed this bad economy from george w. bush and it's taken a long time to get out of this. the president is on the right track. >> yeah. >> bret: is that sellable in this hall? >> they are in a difficult situation exactly what jeff said. they want to -- i think they would have like to avoid the question, which is why they donneled it out of the box -- dodged it out of the box. they try to avoid it. the first george bush got in trouble because when he started to say the economy is turning around. people are saying no, it doesn't feel like it's turning

around to us. so they don't want to look disconnected from the voters. the reality is though we are better off been many measures. they are correct to talk about that. i mean, it is better to be losing jobs in as they were when obama came in office? or better to be adding jobs? of course it's better to add jobs. is it better to have the auto industry about to collapse? or better to have save the auto industry? is it better to have the stimulus that many economists including mark xandy say avoid the collapse? it's better. on and on. there are a lot of things they can talk about. they just don't want to feel like they are telling people your life is great. because that is not the truth. >> bret: tucker? >> the first listen here is waterboarding works. for all the people who wonder governor o'malley is living proof you can force people to change. the beauty of america is we measure everything. right? there is no metric that goes unreported. the obvious numbers have been much talked about. unemployment rate, debt and

deficit. down the list. markers of the direction of the american society. it's almost uniformly bad. i mean literally down to things like s.a.t. scores. they're down. food stamps. >> that's obama's fault? >> 14 million people on food stamps. you know the number of mens uninsured by health insurance is up two full percentage points. who would have expected? for 104 consecutive months american said we think country is on the real track. that is bad. key number. it's dramatically wrong direction for obama. >> bret: so that point, jeff, this entire convention is bracketing by not just republicans, and messaging but by two things. one, the debt will hit $16 trillion. probably tomorrow when the convention gets underway. two, the jobs report comes out friday. it's predicted to be not that great. but if for republicans if you are going to live by this good, bad feeling, if the jobs report before the election is better. let's just say it is. does that show that you are

heading in the right direction? >> i don't think there will be time? there will be a jobs report the friday before election day. by that time millions of americans, tens of millions of americans will have voted in this country, because of early voting and things. at that point, it's baked in. the jobs report on friday is going to immediately change the subject from the president's speech on thursday evening. so that is not good timing at all. the friday one before the election, by that point, i haven't run in a voter out there across the country, i talk to a lot of them watching that final jobs report. to give up or down on this president. by then, that point, the chili will be cooked, or baked or whatever metaphor we use. >> bret: cooking is going on. okay. >> voter out there might want to hear from the president and a plan other than best we can tell it's more of the same. then he wants a huge tax increases that the congressional budget office say will cause another recession. this has been a lousy recovery. somewhat of a recovery but a

lousy one. the president was elected to fix the economy. the economy is unfixed. >> bret: go ahead. >> i think you may even understate it. now they are pushing the federal reserve to boost the currency more and buy more american debt. i don't think the average person understands how totally devalued the u.s. dollar is. we're going to find out because if the laws of economics don't change but they are doing a lot behind the scenes to boost the economy. >> bret: does the president have to be specific? he's charging that romney is not specific in his convention speech and that is what he is using on the speech. does the president have to list how he will turn the economy around, something he hasn't done until now? >> he does. his campaign says he is going to. i think that the republicans to a certain extent are overplay this of how terrible every single thing is including the a.s.t. scores -- - s.a.t. scores. stock market is better than it was. a.p. poll, 26% say they are

better off and 34% say they are the same. that is 60% of the country saying they are same or better. this is not armageddon. that is what the republicans are painting this as. >> bret: armageddon? response? >> i would say first of all, i don't think the president is responsible for that but i say there is a feeling as you note on the republican side things are falling apart. true or not. that is the perception of every republican voter i talked to in the last two weeks and most independent. >> bret: next up, bill clin top, the good, the bad, the ugly. stay tuned. [ male announcer ] it's a golden opportunity to experience the ultimate expression of power... control. [ engine revs ] during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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the last time they were was by a guy named bill

clinton. >> bill clinton will describe the economic policy that led to the greatest economic expansion in a century. >> in the clinton era we had a technology boom, balanced budget, a very accommodative fed easing rates. right now we have no new tech boom. we do not have a balanced budget. and the fed can't cut rates any more. the situation is not comparable. >> bret: as we get ready for president clinton to give a speech endorsing president obama on wednesday, the big keynote address, a quick look at the presidencies. first on jobs. president clinton, the average jobless rate in his two terms 5.#%. there is 9% average for president obama on gdp, the gross domestic product. average is 3.9%. 0.7% for president obama. on the deficit, $1.5 trillion. the average, the total, sorry,

for president clinton and 5.3 trillion for president obama. we are back with the panel. what about this and the effort by the obama campaign to link on the clinton economy? >> well, it makes sense. i think there are many republicans who would vote for bill clinton based on the economic performance in the 1990s. the irony is that there are an awful lot of clinton people, people who think of themselves as first and foremost loyal to president clinton who aren't avid supporters of obama. what i notice living in obama, the closer they are to the president personally, the less they support obama. i know a number of people close to the president i don't believe are going to vote for president obama. the "new yorker" has a claim in there that doug band -- i don't think there is anybody in the world closer to former president clinton, told two different people he is not voting for obama. instead he is voting for mitt romney. that is an amazing thing. >> bret: speaking of the "new yorker" piece there is a

quote in here in the issue about the relationship between president clinton and obama that says this. bill clinton in an effort to secure an endorsement for hillary from ted kennedy said to kennedy a few years ago, "this guy would have been carrying our bags." he told abc news that clinton has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that is troubling. clearly, the relationship has been bumpy along the way. >> it has been bumpy and it was particularly bump in 2008 during this campaign. i mean, but look, a lot has happened and changed since then. a humbling moment or moment of humility for the president so say he needed help from president clinton. if the economy was going better and things were fine, i don't think we would see president clinton -- we wouldn't see president clinton on the stage. but look, he wants to win. i think he decided on his own that he needed to recruit the

strongest star in the party. that is bill clinton. so we have seen advertisements already playing in battleground states across the country from president clinton. that is a snapshot of what i'm told we are going to hear at the speech wednesday night. he is trying to, you know, inspire some of the people who are long for the days of clinton. he is also trying to amplify this message that president obama struggled with. if you elect romney, you will be sort of reversing things instead of going forward. the odd thing is the person making the arguement is from the back as opposed to forward. a weird justaposition of a backward looking convention. >> i haven't thought about that it way but most liberalnous are reactionarries. i should have looked at it that way. i love bill clinton. it's a concession to bring him on as a speaker. think how many times he is off-message saying that bain capital and romney, there sterling, and how much he thought the bush tax cut should be extended, how bush

being governor made him qualified to be president and is on. he said a lot of nice things about romney. talking about clinton said about him. clinton does not like obama. that is obvious. i think some of us here, at least two of us here have heard from people who know bill clinton very well that suspect he will not be at all distressed if obama is not re-elected. it will be quite fine with him. but we will get -- here is how he can help. he does one thing better than anybody nellis the democratic party. that is attack republicans. he can persecute them in ways that even i enjoy. >> bret: come off affable. >> yeah. look, there is no question that there is no love lost. either direction. they don't like each or. i think that what president clinton is going to do i think he is going to help people who want to vote for obama but aren't totally happy with him. they are democrats, maybe independents, who voted for bill clinton.

they want him to basically say it's okay. vote for him. i trust him. i think that he is going to do a good job. they don't have the behind-the-scenes stuff. they don't know about the personal animosity that exists between them or bill clinton didn't think that obama was qualified to be president. no question that is true. >> bret: critics would say barack obama is not bill clinton. or not even close. >> critics would be right in that regard. the one thing, there are many ways which they are different but one key way, you see it reflected here. unions haven't shown up. boycotted. he lacks a personal warmth. you can't find 20 people who say i know him well and love him. they don't exist. >> thank you, panel. that is it for the panel. we wrap things up from charlotte in a minute. .

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